Chapter 61: “Smells Delicious, Making Me Greedy”
“Boss… did Boss’s restaurant change again?”
The first people to reach the Chinese Restaurant cried out in astonishment.
More benches lined the front entrance, and the protective dome of white light seemed to cover a noticeably wider area.
“Huh? Why isn’t the limited-edition rice porridge out here today! I was waiting to grab some!”
Hearing the words “rice porridge,” Zhou Xue pricked up her ears.
She had led her squad out this early precisely for that porridge.
“Rice porridge has no purchase limits starting today.”
They heard Boss Ling’s clear voice carry from within the shop.
“Huh? What’s that smell?”
Hall flared his nostrils, sniffing like a keen hound. “Smells delicious, making me greedy.”
A young man beside him sniffed the air in imitation and declared on the spot, “Chestnuts! It’s chestnuts!”
With that, the young man dashed inside like a streak of lightning.
Someone shouted from behind him, “Long Shi! Didn’t we agree Auntie Qian would buy the food while we went to work today?!”
“That was yesterday! What if Boss rolls out new items and they sell out before we get any?!”
“Good point!” His companions spun on their heels and charged into the shop right behind him.
“?!”
Hall tossed every scrap of grief clean out of his mind, sprinting inside right on their heels.
The other patrons swarming the entrance weren’t about to be left behind either.
Evidently, everyone had caught the scent.
Amid the familiar savory aromas of roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes, and simmering Malatang, there drifted a rich, nutty sweetness and a novel, mouthwatering fragrance they hadn’t smelled in days past.
Scrambling eagerly through the doors, people found that today’s Chinese Restaurant… had undergone massive renovations!
First was the front entrance area.
Upon stepping inside, the original checkout corner had expanded into an independent, dedicated section.
The cashier counter remained on the left as you walked in.
However, the roaster’s position had shifted.
Previously, the roaster and the one-pot stew cabinet had sat opposite each other on the left and right; now, both had been consolidated along the right wall.
And to the right… stood brand-new tables and culinary machinery!
Rice porridge, boiled corn?! Sugar-roasted chestnuts?!!
There really were new items!
While newcomers were still marveling in dazed awe, regular customers had long learned to read the board themselves, craning their necks to study the menu mounted on the wall behind the cashier counter.
The original menu had listed only five offerings, but now three more had been added.
Slotted right before the Malatang skewers.
[Menu
- Roasted Potato — 4 City Coins/piece (Purges 1% Toxicity)
- Roasted Sweet Potato — 6 City Coins/piece (Purges 2% Toxicity)
- One-Pot Stew — 15 City Coins/portion (For 24 hours post-consumption: Physical Strength +5%, stabilizes body temperature, Mental Resistance +10%. Stew Trait: Multiplies other food effects by 2 for 30 minutes post-consumption.)
- Pickled White Radish — 1 City Coin/portion (For 3 hours post-consumption: Reduces inhaled toxin absorption by 10%. Pickle Trait: Enhances reflexes by 2% after 3+ consecutive days of consumption.)
- Rice Porridge — 7 City Coins/portion (For 1 hour, reduces blood toxicity concentration every 5 minutes by the volume of porridge consumed in milliliters divided by 2. Slows mutation and death caused by toxic overload. Cleanses one instance of Frenzy or Hallucination debuffs.)
- Sugar-Roasted Chestnuts — 8 City Coins/portion (Purges 1% Toxicity. For the day of consumption: Positive Emotions +20%, Frigid Environment Endurance +10%.)
- Boiled Corn — 5 City Coins/ear (Purges 1% Toxicity. For 2 hours post-consumption: Stamina Recovery Rate +10%.)
- Malatang Skewers — 0.5 City Coins/skewer (Every 10 skewers converts 1% internal toxicity into energy. Malatang Trait: Moderately enhances neural reflexes for 30 minutes post-consumption.) Note: Items 1–7 are self-serve after payment. Item 8 is settled by tallying skewers after dining. Please pay honestly. This is a modest establishment; no credit is extended.]
“Rice porridge has no limits now!”
“Chestnuts! I knew that was chestnuts! Sugar-roasted chestnuts… how do you make that? Before the cataclysm, I only ever had chestnuts simmered in broth!”
“Who cares how it’s made—anything Boss cooks is bound to taste heavenly! I’m buying a bag to try!”
“Boiled corn boosts stamina recovery speed! Eat an ear of corn before heading out to work!”
“Don’t push, don’t shove—I was in line first!”
Following the expansion, the area to the right of the entrance had consolidated all self-serve food items.
They were arrayed in an orderly line.
Facing the cashier counter on the left, it formed a streamlined, self-service food pickup station right at the entrance.
After paying, patrons could step to the right and help themselves.
“Hey! The rice porridge automatically restocks once a bowl is taken! That’s incredible—what kind of technology is this?”
“Boss’s miraculous tech, what else?”
“The chestnuts restock themselves too!”
“Whoa… so many choices, I can barely pick. Hold on, let me think about what to eat first today.”
“You’re still thinking? It’ll sell out while you stand there daydreaming!”
“Sell out? It’s unlimited today!”
“It’s unlimited, but didn’t you see that batch of porridge just cleared out? The next pot’s only just started brewing!”
“What?!”
“According to the timer display, you’ve got another half-hour wait!”
The speaker scooped up the final bowl of rice porridge and darted off, grinning from ear to ear.
“Weren’t there over twenty bowls just a second ago! Who bought that much?!”
The hesitant diner gave up on browsing and scrambled to pay, terrified that the corn they had their eye on would sell out next, leaving them waiting on the next batch.
That corn smelled wonderfully sweet. Those lucky enough to buy an ear were already munching away with satisfying crunches, driving everyone nearby mad with cravings.
Customers who had secured their food walked deeper inside, immediately noticing the layout shifts within the dining hall.
—The Malatang skewer tables on the left remained unchanged, but the space on the right had doubled!
Where there used to be only two square tables, the area had now expanded to match the entire left wing!
Four four-person tables were neatly arranged there now.
The dining room felt vastly roomier.
A wide central aisle split the restaurant down the middle: skewer enthusiasts sat on the left, while the right was dedicated to tables and chairs for guests enjoying their self-serve orders.
The dining hall now boasted distinct, functional zones, significantly larger than when it had first opened.
“Incredible! It looked nothing like this when I visited yesterday!”
“Shows how little you know, huh? Boss raised this entire restaurant overnight in the first place.”
“Huh? How did Boss pull that off?”
“Don’t question it—Boss possesses divine means.”
Regulars puffed out their chests with pride before wide-eyed newcomers.
“Finally got my hands on rice porridge! I missed out yesterday.”
“Porridge paired with pickled white radish goes down so smoothly. My stomach feels completely soothed, and my whole body’s warm!”
Having settled their bills, people found empty seats and contentedly dug into their meals in the right-side dining section.
“This corn tastes so sweet! Has it just been too long since I had some, or does Boss boil corn differently?”
“Obviously! Any ingredient in Boss’s hands turns out extraordinarily delicious!”
“Is corn really that good? Back then, I always thought it was bland and a chore to chew,” a man sipping porridge asked a corn-eating diner.
“Delicious—seriously, it’s so sweet and crisp! You should grab an ear and try it, it’s cheap!”
“Good point!”
Setting down his porridge bowl, the man spun around to join the queue again.
Outside, the benches were just as lively.
Long Shi was locked in a fierce struggle with a hot bag of sugar-roasted chestnuts.
Fresh from the roaster, the chestnuts were scalding, their roasted aroma drilling persistently into his nostrils.
He cracked a shell straight open with his teeth, gnawing out the tender meat in rough chunks.
Even though bits of shell mixed into the bites, the chestnut flesh was sweet, tender, and fluffy. Long Shi went so far as to lick the empty shell clean.
No wonder the sign promised to boost positive moods—who wouldn’t be overjoyed after eating something sweet?!
“Brother Long Shi, you don’t need to bite it like that. Just press along this seam and pry it open, and the meat pops right out.”
Lilin sat on the bench nearby with her little sister, cradling a paper bag of chestnuts in her lap as she demonstrated the technique for him.
The two little girls were having the time of their lives nibbling their treats, so engrossed that Lina hadn’t even uttered a word.
Beside the benches, Zhou Xue and her squad were packing their rucksacks full of food.
She was giving Xia Dong and the members staying behind directions to the abandoned fields.
“The locals here organize themselves into foraging parties to harvest the toxic crops. Just stick with them and follow along.”
Zhou Xue pointed toward a gathering cluster of scavengers.
“…What are they staring at?” Shelley noticed something off.
The gathering crowd didn’t look like they were setting out to dig vegetables at all.
Several muffled gasps drifted over from their direction.
Walking forward together, the squad craned their necks, following the scavengers’ gazes toward the space behind the Chinese Restaurant.
“Is that… farmland?!”
Seeing the tender green shoots sprouting from the plots behind the building, they were struck with the exact same shock as the onlookers.
Within the fenced-in soil, the emerging sprouts were completely normal in size and color, free of any grotesque, writhing tentacles.
The Awakeners couldn’t detect even a single trace of toxic taint radiating from them.
The crops Boss Ling planted… were immune to emerald corrosion?!
